Workers Prevent U.A.S.from gunning Hartlepool Service
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A CTION by employees Of the State-owned United Automobile. 1-1. Services, Ltd.; Darlington, has prevented the company from
completing an agreement made with Hartlepool .CorporatiOa to run a bus service between Hartlepool and West Hartlepool. At the eleventh hour, Beeline Roadways (Teesside), Ltd., agreed to act as the council's agents, and the service went into operation as planned last Saturday.
Hartlepool has acquired four Bristol 56-seat double-deck buses for the service, which is being operated on a 50-50 basis with West Hartlepool Corporation.
West Hartlepool's application to the High Court, contesting thedecision of the Northern Licensing Authority to grant a licence to Hartlepool to operate the bus service (reported in the July 17 issue of The Commercial Motor), is not likely to be heard before October. .
Members of the Transport and General Workers Union employed by United Automobile 'Services, Ltd., decided at a meeting early last week that they would not work the service unless they were granted the more favourable rates of pay.-and conditions which apply to West Hartlepool Transport Department's staff employed on the• same route.
Unemployment Feared
This was a sequel to a meeting of members of the Union employed by West Hartlepool, at which the-corporation employees expressed concern about the possibility of loss of work if Hartlepool also ran a service on the .same route.
Confusion aOpeared to reign until the last. Early last week the Mayor of Hartlepool, Ur. W. C. Pounder, said: "We are going right ahead with our plans and, as far as I know, our service will be on the road next Saturday. If we cannot reach an agreement on timetables with West Hartlepool we will run a timetable . of our own—as far as possible between the West Hartlepool times."
At the same time an official of U.A.S. was saying: "I do not know whether we have received a request for better pay and conditions, and cannot say what would be the outcome of such a request" .
West Hartlepool's Position
Asked whether there was a possibility of agreement on a joint timetable before the dispute went before the High Court, Mr. E J. Waggott, town clerk of West Hartlepool, said: "Without prejudice to the legal proceedings, West Hartlepool has made it clear it is prepared to operate a joint route with Hartlepool themselves. The operative word is 'themselves.' West Hartlepool is not prepared to operate the route in conjunction with the United company, which is the effect of Hartlepool's present proposals.'
Some degree of agreement must have been reached since then, as •Mr. J. Wilson, a director of Beeline Roadways, told The Commercial Motor on • Tuesday that the service was being operated on a 50-50 basis. A28